Kenny Britt explains himself, kind of

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Kenny Britt sort of went in circles Wednesday as he talked publicly for the first time since he tweeted that he was getting the Jared Cook treatment and expected this to be his final season with the Tennessee Titans.

Looks like the Titans pullin that Jared Cook card .. Looking like this the last year ill be sayin #TitanUp .. So lets make it a Great year

He seems to be the last guy to conclude that the Titans will move on after his contract expires. They have, after all, spent a 2012 first-round pick on Kendall Wright and a 2013 second-rounder on Justin Hunter.

Britt, in his fifth season, said he was upset by a newspaper report conveyed to him that attributed a brief benching Sunday to penalties, lack of effort and imprecise routes on his part. Those things, of course, didn’t form out of the ether. They came from coach Mike Munchak in his Monday press conference, and from offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains in a radio appearance Tuesday.

“(What’s written) gets brought to my attention, and I probably took it the wrong way,” Britt said. “If they would have came out and said, ‘Hey, we took him out because of a holding penalty,’ then I’d have been OK with it. But then saying I had mistakes in the game, they took me out because of mistakes and I wasn’t blocking, that’s just wrong.”

A penalty is a mistake, however -- especially a holding penalty within 24 hours of the coach spelling out how players needed to let go and not give officials cause to call a hold.

Munchak downplayed the tweet and resulting fan backlash, though he said he’d spoken to Britt about it. Britt said he spoke to general manager Ruston Webster, who asked him to take any issues he has to the people he has them with rather than to Twitter.

Britt said he’s not a selfish player, and noted that he was a college teammate of Ray Rice’s at Rutgers and has long been used to being part of a run-heavy offense.

According to Britt, the tweet had nothing to do with him not getting the ball. He said he recalled the Titans saying that Cook, a tight end who’s now in St. Louis, wasn’t getting the ball in 2012 because he was making mistakes.

“I think that wasn’t the case last year, and that wasn’t the case this year with me making mistakes being why they benched me,” he said. “It wasn’t the case.”

Britt said he hopes the Titans want him back next season and that he would like to be back.

It’s now time for him to show coaches he’s not going to make mistakes going forward, to muscle past defensive backs the way he can, to get open and to begin making the sort of plays the Titans' passing games needs.